I knew the name Vito Russo only as a film critic and author – as the man who wrote The Celluloid Closet, the early seminal work about gay images and themes in mainstream cinema. But this 2011 documentary covers much more ground than that. It not only documents his early ties to Bette Midler’s New York bath house performances and the city’s emerging gay club scene, but also Russo’s involvement in gay rights and the initial identification of the AIDS virus.